"WASHINGTON — Investigators piecing together a brazen attempt to bring down a trans-Atlantic airliner said Sunday the suspect tucked a small bag holding his deadly concoction on his body, using an explosive that would have been easily detected with the right airport equipment.

His success in smuggling and partially igniting the material on Friday's flight to Detroit prompted the Obama administration to promise a sweeping review of aviation security.

Adding to the airborne jitters, a second Nigerian man was detained Sunday from the same Northwest flight to Detroit after he locked himself in the plane's bathroom. Officials reported that he was belligerent but genuinely sick, and that, in an abundance of caution, the plane was taken to a remote location for screening before passengers were let off."

"PHOENIX — Two men thought to have been acting suspicious aboard a flight bound for Phoenix were detained and questioned by federal anti-terrorism authorities before they were released, the FBI said Sunday.

Transportation Security Administration officials said passengers aboard U.S. Airways Flight 192 from Orlando, Fla., on Saturday night reported that two men, described as Middle Eastern, were acting strangely and talking loudly to each other in a foreign language."

"PHOENIX — Two men thought to have been acting suspicious aboard a flight bound for Phoenix were detained and questioned by federal anti-terrorism authorities before they were released, the FBI said Sunday.

Transportation Security Administration officials said passengers aboard U.S. Airways Flight 192 from Orlando, Fla., on Saturday night reported that two men, described as Middle Eastern, were acting strangely and talking loudly to each other in a foreign language."

This is where fear and paranoia come in, and in no way should it be justified. How many times have we English-speaking people just shook our heads when we see two people in this situation speaking Spanish, Russian, or French to someone else? I just had this happen at my local Starbucks!

But two Middle Eastern people? everyone goes crazy, shoots first, then asks questions later. I understand where safety comes in, but the moment we start to get scared because of two people and a foreign language is the moment we stop being a country, and start to become victims of terror, which the terrorists want us to be.

I understand where safety comes in, but the moment we start to get scared because of two people and a foreign language is the moment we stop being a country, and start to become victims of terror, which the terrorists want us to be.

BL.

You can hardly call yourself a 'victim of terror' if you are proactive; a term that is an anathema in the current administration.

Going Dutch [Mark Steyn]

".... filmmakers from the Netherlands may be a statistically insignificant demographic but they have good reason to be alert to types like Mr Abdulmutallab.

The last time a Dutch filmmaker *http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theo_van_Gogh_(film_director) encountered a jihadist face to face he said "Can't we talk?" and was rewarded with eight bullets, near decapitation and a crowing note from his murderer skewered by knife through his chest. By contrast, Mijnheer Schuringa jumped on the guy, got him in a choke hold, and dragged him away. That makes more sense - even if it is, under Secretary Napolitano's new rules, now illegal.

Perhaps she can have him prosecuted. After all, by her perverse standards, that would truly demonstrate the system "worked"."

This is where fear and paranoia come in, and in no way should it be justified. How many times have we English-speaking people just shook our heads when we see two people in this situation speaking Spanish, Russian, or French to someone else? I just had this happen at my local Starbucks!

100% agreed. It should not be justified. It's racial profiling. But we live in a post 9/11 world. I also think with the attempted attack on Christmas Day, people were on high alert, and were quick to, as you said, shoot first, as questions later.

I understand where safety comes in, but the moment we start to get scared because of two people and a foreign language is the moment we stop being a country, and start to become victims of terror, which the terrorists want us to be.

BL.

You can hardly call yourself a 'victim of terror' if you are proactive; a term that is an anathema in the current administration.

Same thing could be said of the previous administration. They had information on the lead guy, and did nothing on it. Only after 9/11 occurred were there any measures taken. Reactive, and the victim there. 9 months after 9/11, I took my scanner onboard (carryon in my jacket pocket) a short LAS-LAX flight, and when I turned it off and put my headphones away, the couple next to me looked at me as if I were a terrorist. Yet I'm more native to this country than they and their ancestors were. Their look was one of fear, as if they were the victims of terror, which we all were, looking for safety, instead of their freedoms. As Ben Franklin said:

Quote

Those who sacrifice freedom for security deserve neither.

That was what happened after 9/11, when the previous administration was still in a victim state of mind.

Quote

Going Dutch [Mark Steyn]

".... filmmakers from the Netherlands may be a statistically insignificant demographic but they have good reason to be alert to types like Mr Abdulmutallab.

The last time a Dutch filmmaker *http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theo_van_Gogh_(film_director) encountered a jihadist face to face he said "Can't we talk?" and was rewarded with eight bullets, near decapitation and a crowing note from his murderer skewered by knife through his chest. By contrast, Mijnheer Schuringa jumped on the guy, got him in a choke hold, and dragged him away. That makes more sense - even if it is, under Secretary Napolitano's new rules, now illegal.

Perhaps she can have him prosecuted. After all, by her perverse standards, that would truly demonstrate the system "worked"."

Personally, I believe the source of the issue lies with the Dutch. He came in to EHAM from DNMM on KLM588. He had a valid US passport, was recently on a watch list, but not a no-fly list, as far as the US is concerned. But from my experiences flying overseas, if you're in transit in another country, you don't pass through security again. Obviously, Lagos' security is the worst (as we know from all the signs we see in the airports), but for his destination, they should have subjected the passengers to a more thorough screening, not only with respect to TSA regs, but because of the pisspoor security in Nigeria.

Are the Dutch derelict in their duties for not searching the man's testicles?What airport security detail in the world has the authority to frisk someone's testicles?Under the Third Geneva Convention, prisoners of war are protected from getting their balls squeezed yet apparently air passengers do not have this protection.

I can see, in the not too distant future, there will be an attempt to hike the average airline ticket to cover the costs of a full body scan. For those who wish to forgo this hike, a security officer with a rubber glove will have to do and I shall be busy marketing a new brand of underwear with built-in low emission x-ray called 'Cache 22', for the fashionable frequent fliers.

"HONOLULU — President Barack Obama on Monday vowed to use "every element of our national power" to keep Americans safe and said the failed Christmas Day plot to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner was "a serious reminder" of the need to continually adapt security measures against changing terrorist threats."

"Meanwhile, al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula claimed responsibility for the thwarted attack as retaliation for a U.S. operation against the group in Yemen. Yemeni forces, helped by U.S. intelligence, carried out two airstrikes against al-Qaida operatives this month in the lawless country that is fast becoming a key front in the war on terror. The second one was a day before 23-year-old Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab attempted to bring down a Northwest Airlines flight as it prepared to land in Detroit."

"LAGOS, Nigeria — The U.S. gave Nigeria four full-body scanners for its international airports in 2008 to detect explosives and drugs, but none were used on the man suspected trying to blow up a Detroit-bound flight, Nigerian officials say."

"WASHINGTON — The attempted Christmas Day bombing of a U.S. airliner was a potentially disastrous "screw up" by the intelligence community, President Barack Obama said on Tuesday as he vowed urgent action to tighten air security.

Sharpening his tone as he sought to limit political fallout over the intelligence breakdown, Obama said spy agencies had enough information to uncover the December 25 plot to blow up a Detroit-bound flight from Amsterdam but failed to "connect those dots.""

"In one concrete change, the administration is adding more air marshals to flights. Hundreds of law enforcement officers from Homeland Security Department agencies are being trained and deployed to the federal Air Marshal Service, said a government official familiar with the strategy.

There are more than 4,000 federal air marshals but many times that number for domestic and international flights each day."